


Stress

by WishStone



Category: Persona 4
Genre: Bathing/Washing, F/M, Friendship, supportive friends
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-01
Updated: 2019-12-01
Packaged: 2021-02-26 01:08:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,321
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21625060
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WishStone/pseuds/WishStone
Summary: After hurting herself in the last dungeon run, Kanji is taking Naoto home. Sore, exhausted and stressed out, she grumbles along the way, until Kanji gets her home and finally loses his patience with her.Prompt provided by Pyrrhic Kong
Relationships: Shirogane Naoto/Tatsumi Kanji
Comments: 21
Kudos: 86





	Stress

**Author's Note:**

  * For [pyrrhickong](https://archiveofourown.org/users/pyrrhickong/gifts).



One arm resting on the much smaller girl’s shoulder, the other held over her hand so that hers wouldn’t be drawn from his ribs, Kanji supposed his crush as they slowly walked towards the junior detective’s home. 

The short girl mumbled, not for the first time, “I told you, Tatsumi-kun, I am quite capable of walki-“ 

She cut herself off with a sharp hiss as Rise poked her thigh from the other side. “Mhm-hm, yeah, you at least pulled this with your tucked roll, Naoto-kun. Looked sporty and all, but without warm-ups even I would hurt myself. Really, you can be so-“

“For your information," the other girl hissed, "I was ducking under a Minotaur punch. Without that manoeuvre, it surely would have hit me.”

Kanji shifted his hands, trying to help her along safely. “m sorry, Nao-“

“And you,” the idol rounded on the tall boy, “I trust you to keep my friend safe out there! That was dangerous, what were you doing?”

Kanji grit his teeth and took a breath to start growling at his other friend.

It was Naoto who replied, after puling herself upright against him. “Rise-san, he was covering for Yukiko-senpai while she was preparing to heal everyone. He is very capable, but only one person.” 

To Kanji, not only was this prime blushing fodder, but he also heard something in her voice. Something small and tired. He turned his head and looked down to his side, only seeing her hat, as normal when she was so close.

Their idol friend sighed and stopped as they reached the road to the shopping district. “You’re right, Naoto-kun. Sorry, Kanji-kun. You did what you could in there. It's not your fault.” She hesitated, looking up the road.

“It’s gettin’ there, Rise. Just go on home, yeah? I’ll just help Naoto home, she'll be okay.” He gave her a smirk, patting Naoto's hand on his rib cage, causing the short detective to grumble.

Rise nodded and hugged both, making Naoto to hiss once more in the process. “Okay. If she struggles, toss her over your shoulder, Kanji-kun~!”

She skipped away, leaving her friends stammering for a response.

The tall boy recovered first and huffed. “She is… somethin’.”

“Indeed,” the blunette sighed. After a few moments, she hugged his side carefully. “Look, Kanji-kun. I appreciate your help… but it is still early evening. People will see you if we walk like this. They might get the wrong idea…”

_‘Or the right one’,_ he thought with a pang of longing. Giving her a wry smile, he patted her shoulder under his hand. “Na, Naoto, ‘s cool. I mean, they can see you limp a mile away right now.” His smile grew into a smirk at her upturned face morphing into utter annoyance. 

“You are spending way too much time with Yosuke-senpai, Kanji-kun,” she said, poking him in the ribs with her fingers. Then she started moving them forward again, while softly saying, “Your current care and attention is appreciated, however. I would feel uneasy walking by myself in this state.”

“Yeah… uhm…” He fidgeted. “Look, ’m really sorry I didn’t reach ya, this time.”

“I appreciate your thought, really, but covering our healer is a much higher tactical need. I lost sight of the field and got myself into this position.” She shifted and hissed again. “I will possibly be sore and bruised for a few days; as a fitting reminder to my lack in athletics. I believe I should suggest to Yu-senpai that we need to consider correct warm-up exercises before embarking on missions. Just running clearly is not covering all muscles that need stretching.”

They hobbled along mostly in silence the rest of the way. If anyone took note of their close walk, well, Kanji hadn’t been lying. She grabbed his shirt a few times with a sound of discomfort or other, walked at a snail’s pace, and the closer they got to her apartment, the stronger her limp felt through her shoulder.

Every now and again she stumbled, and her mood was darkening. A few times she snapped at him, and he knew this was simply because she was tired and in pain. Normally, Naoto Shirogane was so put together; she wouldn’t just bitch at him. Now anymore, anyhow. She used to do that a few months ago, but now? Na. She was really not doing well if she did that right now.

Naoto was tensing up more with each step, he noticed, and by the time they got to the front entrance, she had a sheen of sweat on her forehead and clenched her teeth tightly together while panting through her nose. 

“Here, lemme get the doors, Naoto. Can I get yer key?” He shuffled her along, gently talking to her and somehow managed to get her into her apartment. 

Once inside her small two-bedroom apartment, Naoto whipped her hat off and tossed it straight ahead into her living room, wiping her face in her sleeve. “I am utterly exhausted…”

Kanji looked her over, seeing her hand still clutching on to his jacket as she slightly swayed where she stood. “Yeah, that was kinda hard to miss. Yer look miserable.”

With a small growl, she tried to turn on him but twisting her body sideways that way finally was too much. Her face contorted in a mask of pain and she stumbled forward into his arms.

As he caught the pained girl, a switch flicked on in Kanji’s head. Naoto was in his arms, groaning slightly. She was hot, tired, exhausted, in pain - and he felt responsible, no matter what anyone said. He would help her, damnit!

“Tha’s it,” he growled, “strip. Yer gonna have a bath. Right now.”

He didn’t hear the protests she stammered; didn’t really care to hear them if he was damn honest. Kanji pushed her into her bedroom, pushed past her into the connected bath, set a temperature and started running the water. Looking around, he only found some shower gel and plain Epson salt. He poured a bit of each in the tub before kneeling down and stirring up the water. Not really the traditional way of doing things, sure, but her shower gel smelled okay enough to serve as a bath additive, he figured, and the salts are supposed to help relax or some such. Rise had given all of them a bottle of the stuff after their concert at Junes. His had been scented, but he thought getting this plain stuff for Naoto had possibly been the safest bet…

She still hadn't joined him. Did she think he wasn't serious? “Naoto? Get in here, the water is getting ready, damnit," he shouted over the running water.

“D-Do not swear, Kanji-kun. A-And-And you should possibly leave now, I can handle the rest.”

Odd. Her voice sounded weirdly timid right now. Whatever. 

Kanji stood and returned to her bedroom, where he found her, wrapped in a towel, blushing furiously while eyeing him with an odd expression on her face. She wasn’t really angry, it seemed. Just confused and a bit startled.

“Heh. Yer look kinda cute like that…” He took her hand and pulled her along, already turning to the bath. “Let’s go. I’ll help ya wash up.”

“Kan-! Th-There really is no- You cannot just-!”

He grunted and tugged at the cloth around her body. “Just get in already. Here, gimme that towel and hop in.” 

The look in her eyes should have registered as coy, or even flirtatious as he pulled the towel away, but all on his mind right then was the thought that she was hurting, and the bath would help. She needed to strip and get in, simple as that.

As Kanji hung the towel up on a hook he spotted beside her tub, he heard water splashing a bit as she got in. When he turned back, she had covered her front with some of the foam, still blushing. ‘She’s really kinda cute when she blushes…’

He knelt beside the tub and took her bath ladle, scooping water repeatedly and pouring it over her back. “See? The hot water 's gonna do ya good.”

“I-I… Yes, I cannot… I mean…” Naoto pinched her eyes shut and leaned forward, wrapping her arms around her legs, giving him room to ladle water over her. “I-… Thank you, Kanji-kun…”

“Yeah, no problem, man.”

As the water in the tub rose and more foam started to cover more of her body, Naoto eased herself back, pulling some of the frothy fluff along to cover herself with. 

Kanji smiled at her as he saw her frown dissolve with contentment. When her body was fully submerged in the hot water, Naoto chuckled. “I believe I have not had a bubbly bath since I was a child. But this is most pleasant, Kanji-kun.” She opened her eyes and they shared a smile. “Thank you for insisting to see me relax.” Her eyes slid closed and she sighed contently.

Kanji wanted to smile back and give another lighthearted reply… but that’s when the timer on his Don’t Give A Damn-switch ran out.

He froze, his eyes widening as he watched his friend relax beside him _‘What… the HELL am I doin’?! Oh gods, I am in Naoto’s apartment, in her damn BATHROOM and she is NAKED!’_ His smile froze in place and she simply closed her eyes as she sunk back to relax.

Panic grabbed Kanji by the throat. 

What now? What can he do? Oh, man, can he just, like, run now? No, she was weak and could maybe still cramp again and he needed to make sure she doesn’t drown herself on accident, right? But she is NAKED!

Trying to not disturb the water too much, he pushed more foam up towards her che- her b- …her _upper body_ , yes, and in doing so discovered that her long, pale legs were nearly as bad to look at as most of her right now. He sat back sharply, hunkering on his knees, pinching his eyes shut.

“You know, Kanji-kun…” Naoto said softly after what felt like an eternity to him.

“Y-YES?”

If his shout startled her, she didn’t show it. “I think I couldn’t let any other boy do this to me… It is as if, hah, I can picture myself taking aim and shooting Yosuke-senpai if he tried to walk in here with me; I would most likely threaten Yu-senpai with calling his uncle… and Teddie would find himself very much physically harmed. But there is something calming about knowing it is you beside me…” Her voice grew steadily softer, her relaxation near perfect.

If she had opened her eyes, it would have been to realise the stark contrast to Kanji’s current state. 

The team bruiser felt his shirt cling to his back with cold sweat, he kept his head down, his eyes squeezed shut, his heart hammered in his chest in utter panic. He knew he should answer but didn’t trust himself to not simply scream incoherently.

Every splash from the tub, every content sigh from Naoto – it made his blood boil like liquid nitrogen. 

“Kanji-kun?”

“Yes,” he squeaked weakly.

“W-Would you take that washcloth and wash my back and shoulders?” Naoto asked very softly.

If not for him trying to maneuverer around her with barely cracked-open eyes now, with all of his focus on trying to not catch a glimpse of his crush on accident, he might have had enough focus to pick up on the soft, gently teasing sound of her voice.

He found the washcloth near her sink, knelt back down beside the tub, slightly behind her, and started to wash her back and shoulders; praying that he wouldn’t touch her pale, soft-looking skin on accident.

“So, uh, like, like this then?” he asked nervously.

Naoto let out a sound of contentment, and Kanji snapped his free hand up to pinch his nose shut, struggling to contain the reactions of his body. 

“Yes… that’s nice… thank you.” She leaned forward further, rounding her shoulders. “More pressure, please…”

Swallowing heavily, he complied, rubbing her shoulders and back firmly. He started to shiver with the exhaustion of keeping it all together, wondering how the heck Naoto was so calm now. She was naked! There was a guy in her bathroom! How didn’t she hate this?

Another groan of contentment and he jerked his hand away reflexively. “ _Haaaa_ ~ …thank you… I do believe that I am warm all over now. I should possibly turn in early tonight, let my muscles relax after the bath…” She trailed off, leaving the statement open for his reply.

“Y-Yeah! Yeah, ya should, like, sleep. And stuff. I, uh, I’ll get ya pyjamas then.”

"Thank you. They are on the bed. Just… you may just lay them down by the sink; I am sure I can get dressed by myself.”

_‘Didya really think I would help with getting ya dressed?!’_ “Uh, yeah, good…” He darted out of the bathroom, grabbed the set by the western-style bed, dropped them by the sink without looking anywhere near the bathtub and stepped right behind the open door. 

“Kanji-kun?”

“I, uh, it’s getting’ late, Ma will be wonderin’ where I am an’ stuff so I better just, y’know, dash!” The words jumbled out of his mouth as one long breath and he wondered if she even caught any of that.

...

“Oh, yes… thank you again, Kan- … Kanji-kun?”

The door had slammed shut behind him before she was even able to finish the sentence. “Oh.” Somehow… that was oddly disappointing.

As she stood to towel herself off, she noticed a few droplets of blood. “Oh no…” She sighed and grabbed some bath tissue to wipe up the drops from the floor. Naoto smiled and muttered to herself, “I wonder if he gave himself a cut or similar small injury and did not realise… he can be so unobservant at times.”


End file.
